Midland, Gladwin county voter registration numbers challenged

Published 5:14 am, Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Voter registration watchdog, True the Vote, has informed officials in Midland County and Gladwin County that the two counties may be in violation of the National Voter Registration Act.

In a letter dated July 31, Houston based- TTV informed Midland County Clerk Ann Manary and Gladwin County’s Laura Brandon-Maveal that the two counties have more than 100 percent voter registration.

“Simply, your county has more voters on the registration rolls than it has eligible live voters,” stated the letter from TTV President Catherine Engelbrecht.

When contacted Monday morning, Midland County Clerk Ann Manary stated that the county has a population of 84,063, of which 65,409 have registered to vote.

“We’ve turned the letter over to the Bureau of Elections to determine our response,” said Manary. “When we get a list from the state we go in and clean up the rolls on a monthly basis. The qualified voter file is driven by driver license. If people leave and don’t change their driver license, we wouldn’t know until their drivers license expires.”

Michigan has instituted the Qualified Voter File which is a fully automated, interactive statewide voter registration database to achieve a wide variety of advantages including: The elimination of all duplicate voter registration records in the system and streamlining of the state’s voter registration cancellation process.

“Michigan probably is probably the most strict state,” said Manary of voter registration. “That’s why we have QVF and do it by driver’s license.”

According to a press release, TTV, a nonpartisan, nonprofit grassroots organization focused on preserving election integrity, is operated by citizens to inspire and equip volunteers for involvement at every stage of the electoral process. TTV empowers organizations and individuals across the nation to actively protect the rights of legitimate voters, regardless of their political party affiliation.”

To formulate their conclusions, TTV compared 2010 Census Data with the Election Assistance Commission’s June 2011 report to Congress titled “Impact of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 on the Administration of Elections for Federal Office 2009-2010.”

“If the data shows otherwise, we are asking them to please release their data,” said Logan Churchwell, TTV public relations director, by phone.

Gladwin last cleaned its voter rolls in April by removing those who are no longer eligible to vote, moved away or have died.

“Each township is responsible for cleaning their rolls and then they bring the updates to us,” said Brandon-Maveal. “In April, we had to send out all new voter registration rolls by state regulation. ... It’s not a requirement for people to register to vote. No county is going to have 100 percent.”

TTV is threatening a lawsuit should the rolls not be cleaned up by the Nov. 6 general election.

Nationwide, TTV claims there are more than 24,000,000 invalid voter registrations

“It is the responsibility of the counties and states to ensure that the citizenry’s votes are protected,” said Engelbrecht. “It’s simply unacceptable for any county to have more voters on its rolls than people who are alive and eligible to vote. Failing to maintain accurate voter registration records is a flagrant violation ...”